3-016-903 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Shakspeare Commemoration in London: planting an oak on Primrose Hill, [London], 1864. The Working Men's Committee plants an oak tree '...in honour of the English poet...Mr. Phelps, the most popular of English Shakspearean actors, had consented to perform the office...The southern face of the hill was covered with people...A large square space, below the steep ascent, was inclosed with an iron railing, and reserved for those who paid their shilling to enter...Mr. George Cruikshank...wore his volunteer uniform...But Mr. Phelps, who is deservedly a favourite of the London working men-having taught them to understand and enjoy Shakspeare by his high-minded management of Sadler's Wells - was received with the most enthusiastic welcome...he stood before the applauding multitude, and waited while the tree, with much of the soil of Windsor clinging to its roots, was lifted and set upright in a hole which had been dug for its reception...That vast multitude...testified to the intense feeling of devotion and reverence they had for the memory of their illustrious countryman; and the committee felt, acting for their countrymen at large, that to no fitter hands than those of Mr. Phelps could be consigned the work of the day...(Protracted cheering)'. From "Illustrated London News", 1864.